Maxim Moisseyevitsch Vinaver (; 30 November O.S. 18 November">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 18 November1863, Warsaw – 11 October 1926, Menthon-Saint-Bernard) was a Russian lawyer, politician, and patron.

Early life

Maxim’s father Moishe-Leib Abramovych Vynaver (1831–1905) was a Jewish shopkeeper. After graduating from the 3rd Warsaw Gymnasium, Vinaver studied law from 1881 to 1886 at the University of Warsaw.

Career

Vinaver lived in Saint Petersburg and worked as an assistant to a lawyer due to the de facto prohibition of admitting lawyers of Jewish faith. During this time, he became known as a legal scholar by publishing articles in legal journals. Later, he began developing the defenses in criminal cases resulting from

anti-Semitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

. In 1900, he organized the successful defense in the

Vilna Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

trial of , who was charged with

ritual murder Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease deity, gods, a human ruler, public or jurisdictional demands for justice by capital punishment, an authoritative/prie ...

. In 1904, during a civil suit in

Gomel Gomel (, ) or Homyel (, ) is a city in south-eastern Belarus. It serves as the administrative centre of Gomel Region and Gomel District, though it is administratively separated from the district. As of 2025, it is the List of cities and largest ...

called "The Jewish Victims", in which he led a group of lawyers, Vinaver resigned after accusing the judge of being biased and leaving the trial. It was only in July 1904 that he was sworn in as a lawyer. Vinaver lectured on social science at the

New University of Brussels The New University of Brussels () was a private university active in Brussels, Belgium, between 1894 and 1919. Its origins were in the Free University of Brussels (1834–1969), Free University of Brussels, a Liberalism in Belgium, liberal instit ...

and at the Paris School of Social Sciences. He became a member of the Legal Society of the University of St. Petersburg and from 1904 to 1906 headed the civil law department of the editorial office of the newspaper ''Rechtskurier der Gesellschaft''. In 1909, he participated in the editing of the work of the St. Petersburg Legal Society. In 1913–1917, he issued the civil law courier. Vinaver participated in the Society for Education of Russian Jews and became chairman of the Historical and Ethnographic Commission. During the

revolution of 1905 The Russian Revolution of 1905, also known as the First Russian Revolution, was a revolution in the Russian Empire which began on 22 January 1905 and led to the establishment of a constitutional monarchy under the Russian Constitution of 1906, t ...

, he was one of the founders of the Union for Full Rights of the Jewish People in Russia in March 1905, and in 1907 he founded the Jewish Folk Group. He collected paintings and worked as a patron. In particular, in 1907, Vinaver helped

Marc Chagall Marc Chagall (born Moishe Shagal; – 28 March 1985) was a Russian and French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with the School of Paris, École de Paris, as well as several major art movement, artistic styles and created ...

start his painting career, assisting him financially and arranging housing for him in the editorial office of ''Voskhod'' magazine. He then supported Chagall with a small scholarship so that he could travel to Paris in September 1910. Later, Chagall wrote that Vinaver made him an artist. In 1905, he was also one of the founders, leaders, and theorists of the

Constitutional Democratic Party The Constitutional Democratic Party (, K-D), also called Constitutional Democrats and formally the Party of People's Freedom (), was a political party in the Russian Empire that promoted Western constitutional monarchy—among other policies� ...

, which was called the party of the Cadets. He became a member of its Central Committee and a deputy in the

First State Duma Legislative elections were held in the Russian Empire from 26 March to 20 April 1906. At stake were the 497 seats in the State Duma of the Russian Empire, the legislative assembly. Election for the First State Duma, which only ran from 27 Apri ...

. After the dissolution of the Duma in 1906, he was among the signatories of the Vyborg Manifesto. Because of this, he was condemned to three months of imprisonment. After the

February Revolution The February Revolution (), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and sometimes as the March Revolution or February Coup was the first of Russian Revolution, two revolutions which took place in Russia ...

, Vinaver joined the Working Group on drafting laws for the election of a

Constituent Assembly A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected b ...

, and the

Provisional Government A provisional government, also called an interim government, an emergency government, a transitional government or provisional leadership, is a temporary government formed to manage a period of transition, often following state collapse, revoluti ...

appointed him Senator of the Civil Division of the Senate Court of Cassation. He was a member of the new Central Duma. During this time, he tended to the left wing of the Cadet Party, and he was Deputy Group Chairman in the Provisional Soviet of the Russian Republic. In 1917, he was elected to the Constituent Assembly of Petrograd (Saint Petersburg). From March 1917, he was the Head of the Commission for Agitation and Publication of the Cadets Party together with the historian Alexander Alexandrovich Kornilov. He was also one of the editors of the newspaper ''Kurier of the People's Liberty Party''. Even before the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

and after an illegal stay in Moscow, Vinaver fled to

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

and took part in the conference of the Cadets on 1 October 1918 in Gaspra. In the spring of 1919, he became Foreign Minister of the Regional Crimean Government, which turned against the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

to the Entente powers. In 1919, Vinaver emigrated to France and settled in Paris, where he called on Russia’s allies to continue supporting the

White movement The White movement,. The old spelling was retained by the Whites to differentiate from the Reds. also known as the Whites, was one of the main factions of the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922. It was led mainly by the Right-wing politics, right- ...

. He was a friend of the chairman of the Committee of the Paris Group of Cadets, and joined the emigrants’ unified democratic forces. He served as chairman of the Russian Publishing Society in Paris, co-founding the Russian newspaper ''Recent News''. He also helped publish the newspaper ''Jewish Tribune'' that decried anti-Semitism. He initiated construction of a Russian university at the Sorbonne, where he gave a lecture on Russian civil law. He played a large part in the trial of Sholem Schwarzbard — who had shot former Ukrainian President

Symon Petliura Symon Vasyliovych Petliura (; – 25 May 1926) was a Ukrainian politician and journalist. He was the Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian People's Army (UNA) and led the Ukrainian People's Republic during the Ukrainian War of Independence, a pa ...

in Paris in 1926 — as a witness for the defense.

Family

Vinaver was married and had three children: the radiologist Valentina Maximovna Vinaver Kremer (1895–1983); the literary historian and founder of the International Arthurian Society Eugène Vinaver (1899–1979); and the lawyer Sofia Maximovna Vinaver Grinberg (1904–1964), who married Leo Adolfowich Grinberg (1900–1981).

Death

Maxim Vinaver died in his home on the night of October 11th, 1926. He was buried as "Maxime Vinaver" at the Paris cemetery Père Lachaise.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vinaver, Maxim 1863 births 1926 deaths People from Congress Poland 19th-century Polish Jews Russian Constitutional Democratic Party members Members of the 1st State Duma of the Russian Empire Russian Constituent Assembly members Lawyers from Saint Petersburg University of Warsaw alumni Immigrants to France Lawyers from the Russian Empire 20th-century Polish Jews